1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to crude oil burners and more particularly to a burner useful for oil well testing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the testing of oil wells to check the flow capacity and for other purposes it is necessary to dispose of substantial quantities of crude oil preferably by combustion.
Various burners for such disposal have been proposed.
One burner, intended for offshore disposal of crude oil has been proposed, operating with forced draft, but the weight of the airduct for supplying the air is high with attendant supporting problems. The wind-loading of the airduct also introduces serious problems. The burner is of lower capacity than desired and does not eliminate the smoke.
Another type of burner has also been proposed, as shown in Drivet, U.S. Pat. No. 3,565,562 but this is subject to mechanical problems in use.
In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,992 a crude oil burner is shown which is particularly suited for offshore disposal of crude oil but that burner is intended for very high disposal rates and is not suited for inland use in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions where water is not readily available because of low ambient temperatures and remoteness of the location where disposal is required.
In my prior application for patent filed Jan. 14, 1974, Ser. No. 433,255, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,857, for Flammable Liquid Waste Burner structure is shown for disposal of flammable liquids having low combustible content and which may not have a sufficient combustible content to burn without fuel addition, water being introduced to avoid smoke emission.
The burner of the present invention utilizes some of the same concepts as are disclosed in my prior patent and application referred to above but is utilized in a different environment which introduces different problems.